There is growing evidence that the Sharks are going to rise from the United Rugby Championship canvas to deliver a title-winning knock-out blow in the European Challenge Cup.
That is the good news for long-suffering Sharks fans who watched in dismay as their team finished 2023 in 16th position on the URC table.
From there the only way is up and in January we have seen the Durbanites bounce back in the Challenge Cup with big wins over Oyonnax and the Dragons.
The latter match is the one that excites me. The Sharks played the atrocious conditions well and then finished with a flurry of points. How they celebrated their win at the final whistle suggests strongly that this is where their energy is focused — there is no coming back in the URC, not when you are stone last and the competition is well past the halfway mark.
Lukhanyo Am confirmed that his team is eyeing silverware in an alternative tournament.
“We haven’t performed well in the URC, but we can zoom in towards the Challenge Cup. It is a new competition and a fresh focus and we can build from it. We can put the URC behind us,” the captain said.
Yes, talk is cheap but I believe the Sharks have put behind them a difficult teething period under returning coach John Plumtree while they are going to have a full arsenal of big guns for the remainder of the Challenge Cup.
It is a fact that the Sharks did not have 12 Springboks for nearly all of those nine URC matches they lost and Plumtree has said they will overhaul their recruitment strategy going forward.
He and Neil Powell are going over the squad and sorting the wheat from the chaff, but it takes time because contracts are in place.
Going forward there is going to be a much better calibre of player available to Plumtree when the Boks are away.
But in the here and now, consider the World Cup firepower that is good to go for the Sharks’ April 7, last-16 Challenge Cup match against Zebre in Durban — Bongi Mbonambi, Vincent Koch, Eben Etzebeth and Ox Nche.
That is in the tight five, the area where the game is won and lost. Add to that the underrated lock Gerbrand Grobler and the young firebrands Corne Rahl and Ntuthuko Mchunu and you have a front five that will take no prisoners.
There is also a youth brigade that is coming through after some hard yards in the URC — talented players like Emile van Heerden, Phepsi Buthelezi, Dylan Richardson (currently injured), and Lappies Labuschagne – plus solid citizens in James Venter and Sikhumbuzo Notshe while Vincent Tshituka must still come back from a serious knee injury.
A big reason why the Sharks are playing better is the return from post World Cup rest of their duo of Bok scrumhalves. In the measured playing style of the calm Jaden Hendrikse and the blinding pace of game-breaker Grant Williams, the Sharks have the best of both worlds in a crucial position.
The poser for Plumtree is who to start with. He is tending to use Hendrikse to start the game and Williams to finish when the game is looser and his pace can be lethal, but I have also seen Williams starting and getting the ball quicker to Curwin Bosch, who plays better as a result.
I’d give each of the scrumhalves opportunities to start. Talking of Bosch, the Sharks have invested so many resources in the 26-year-old, and after 145 games they are still waiting for him to realise the potential that made him so talked about when he was an SA Schools player two years in a row.
Plumtree said six months ago that Bosch had been unfairly criticised because the game plan he had been given restricted his options. The New Zealander said that Bosch would play better if those around him gave him the platform to pull the strings.
Well, the pack of forwards the Sharks will have for the next couple of months should give Bosch a pandora’s box of options as he finds himself in the Last Chance Saloon. I have a sneaking suspicion he is going to take his chance at last, and I know many will disagree with me.
Finally, Plumtree has been home in New Zealand on a break after probably the most intense six months of his rugby career. He has sweated blood for the Sharks trying to get the team on track. There are few prouder sons of the Sharks than this Kiwi and he will return wiser, refreshed, and pumped to take the Sharks to the top.
IOL Sport